Evoked Potentials, Brain MRI and EEG in Cerebral Palsied Children

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The present study was undertaken to evaluate the findings of multimodality evoked potentials, brain MRI and EEG in cerebral palsy children and to identify the correlations between these findings. METHOD: We examined Brain MRI, EEG and evoked potentials including visual evoked potentials(VEPs), brainstem auditory evoked potentials(BAEPs) and somatosensory evoked potentials(SSEPs) in 80 cerebral palsy children. RESULTS: 1) Abnormal findings of brain MRI and EEG were 79.4% and 81% respectively. 2) Abnormal responses of VEPs and BAEPs were 28.1% and 18.8%. 3) In the median and tibial nerve SSEPs, abnormal responses were 14.6% and 28.6%. Abnormal findings of the tibial nerve SSEPs were more frequent than the median nerve SSEPs. 4) In children with spastic hemiplegia, the abnormal SSEPs were much greater in the affected limb than unaffected limbs. 5) There was a significant correlation between the SSEP abnormalities and brain MRI or EEG abnormalities in cerebral palsy children. CONCLUSION: The data obtained in this study would be helpful for identifying and assessing the central nervous system deficits of cerebral palsy children.